The Jesus Storybook Bible

Andy and I for the first time ever officially read a children's Bible together and we thoroughly enjoyed it (no, we are no expecting babies anytime soon). I had been hearing about The Jesus Storybook Bible for quite some time. My pastor has gone through it with his son and he highly recommends it. Since we don't have children, it wasn't exactly at the top of my to-buy-soon list. However, a few weeks ago we stumbled across a huge chunk of store credit at Mardels, and I decided it would be a good opportunity to pick up this book. When I brought it home, I stuck it on our shelf with lots of unread books. A few days later, I happened upon an article on Christianity today called, "A Very Grown-up Children's Bible" and after reading this, I pulled the book off the shelf and asked Andy if he wanted to read it with me. We had a blast reading it! The illustrations are awesome, and we found ourselves laughing at lots of them. Not only that, but there is so much rich theology throughout the book, but in children's language. I find that most children's bibles make heros out of particular Bible characters, but downplays their weaknesses. On the contrary, The Jesus Storybok Bible takes each story and talks about the failures of the Old Testament figures and how Jesus fulfills all the promises and keeps the Law perfectly.

My favorite depiction in the book was the contrast between Adam and Jesus. In Genesis, you see Adam succumb to the temptation of the snake as the snake jeers at him, "Does God really love you? If he does, why won't he let you eat the nice, juicy, delicious fruit? Poor you, perhaps God doesn't want you to be happy", and Adam fails. When Jesus comes and is being tempted in the wilderness by the same snake, you see Him overcome this temptation! "Jesus wasn't like Adam. Jesus was a new kind of man. He would not believe the terrible lie that the enemy spoke. Jesus knew God loved him. And he would trust God. No matter what. It was just as God has promised to Adam and Eve all those years before. Jesus had come to do battle against the snake's work. He would get rid of the sin and the darkness and tear. And he would suffer - but he would win."

So exciting and so true!!! I'm so thankful that Jesus' righteousness counts for me!